This book was… kind of all over the place. But also, somehow, very little happened.

The main romance was between Aiko and Summer, who shared one anonymous kiss in high school and have been thinking about it (obsessively, and kind of weirdly?) ever since. They re-unite and fall head over heels in love, despite disagreeing over the ethics of gentrification.

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And that’s basically all that happens. They fall on different sides of a re-building project, which is the only conflict for the entire book (and it’s resolved alarmingly easily). The dynamic between them, specifically the way Aiko thinks and talks about Summer’s body, made me very uncomfortable. By the second half of the book I was rooting for them as a couple, but for the first half I couldn’t see why they were well-matched.

There was so much scope for the town and people to be better fleshed-out. Summer would be having a heart-to-heart with someone in the final chapter who we are told she has known for her whole life, but has only appeared at this moment. Other characters only appeared when they specifically serviced the main story, so it felt like they existed in a vacuum.

I also found myself cringing at the way some of the straight characters discussed things like coming out (but not in the way you might think!). For example, when Summer recalls how she told her dad she had a crush on the first time, and he responds with fondly remembering how happy he was that she felt comfortable to tell him. That’s not how anyone talks! It felt a little too textbook, and jarred with the rest of the scene.

There was a lot of potential in this book, but ultimately very little of it was realised.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.